2. Let not this doctrine encourage any person to continue in sin. If

Fourthly, this subject suggests a caution. 1. Do not think your sins are forgiven because they are not as great as those that God has forgiven in others. This is to take comfort in the faults of others.

Consider that God rejected Saul for less sins than David committed.

Evil angels were rejected for one sin. A few small grains of sand can sink a ship as well as a large rock. Your sins may be forgiven, even if they are as great as others, but then you must have the same qualities as they did. They had great sins, and so do you, but do you have as great a hatred and disgust of sin as they did?

2. Let not this doctrine encourage any person to continue in sin. If you now draw such poison out of this doctrine and boast of the name

God proclaims in Exodus 34:6-7, take the cooler with you and remember that it is one part of His name "by no means to clear the guilty." He never intended those mercies for sinners as sinners but as penitents. Penitents, as such, are not guilty, because repentance is a moral revocation of sin and always supposes faith in Christ. There is

"forgiveness with God," according to Psalm 130:4, but it is "that He may be feared," not despised. God never intended mercy as a sanctuary to protect sin.

(1.) It is disingenuous to do so. Great love requires great duties, not great sins. The freeness of grace should make us increase in holiness in a more cheerful manner. What high ingratitude it is to be inclined to sin because God is inclined to pardon, to have a frozen heart to Him because He has a melting heart to you! What, to rebel against Him because He has a compassionate heart, and to be wicked because God is good! To turn grace itself into wantonness! Is this to fear His goodness? No, it is to trample on it, to make that which should excite you to holiness a bawd to your lust, and God Himself a pander to the devil. If you thus slight the design of this mercy, which you can never prize at too high a rate, it is certain you never had the least taste of it. If you had, you could not sin so freely, for when grace enters, it makes the soul dead to sin, according to Romans 6:1-2. The apostle answers such a consequence with a "God forbid!"

(2.) It is foolish to do so. Would any person be so naive as to set their house on fire because they have a great river running by their door, from which they may have water to extinguish it, or injure themselves, because there is an excellent plaster that has cured several?

(3.) It is dangerous to do so. If you lose the present time, you are at risk of losing eternity. There are many in hell who never sinned in such a presumptuous manner. God is merciful to the penitent, but he will not be unfaithful to his threats. If you are willing to receive grace, you may have it, but on God's terms. He will not pin it upon your sleeve whether you want it or not. This is to make that which is the aroma of life become the aroma of death to you. See what an answer Paul gives to such a notion, "Let us do evil, that good may come; whose damnation is just," Rom. 3:8. He takes a handful of hell-fire and flings it in their faces. Let Deut. 29:18, 19, stare you in the face, and promise yourself peace in this course if you can: "Lest there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood, and it comes to pass, when he hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of my heart." As God's goodness is great, which you despise, so the wrath will be the hotter you treasure up. Although great sins are occasions of great grace, yet sin does not necessitate grace. Who can tell whether God would have shown mercy to Paul had he done that against knowledge which he did ignorantly?

Repentance must come first; see the order, "Repent, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out," Acts 3:19. First, repentance and conversion, then justification. This grace is only given to penitent sinners. You do not know whether you will repent, but you may know that if you do not repent, you will be damned. As the gospel binds us to good behaviour as much as the law.

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